Catty colleagues may suggest the reason Alice Roberts and Brian Cox are frequently asked to present scientific programmes on TV is more down to beauty than brains – despite the pair of professors’ extensive academic qualifications.

However, looks can count against you if you want to be taken seriously in science it seems.

When it comes to judging scientists, we are more likely to find an attractive scientist interesting, but the chances are we think their less attractive colleagues are the better scientists, a new study by researchers at the Universities of Cambridge and Essex suggests.

“It’s not yet clear how much this shapes the spread and acceptance of scientific ideas among the public, but the rapid growth in visual media means it may be an increasingly important issue.”

Dr Will Skylark, lead author, University of Cambridge

More than 200 faces of scientists from the physics and genetics departments at US universities were selected at random for one study, along with faces of 400 scientists from from the physics and biological sciences departments at UK universities in a second.

In the first study, one group was asked to rate the faces on a variety of traits, such as how intelligent the individual looked, how attractive they were, and their perceived age. Then, two other groups of participants indicated how interested they would be in finding out more about each scientist’s research or how much the person looked like someone who conducts accurate and important research.

No difference in race

People were more interested in learning about the work of scientists who were physically attractive and who appeared competent and moral, the researchers found. Interest was also slightly stronger for older scientists, and slightly lower for females. There was no difference in interest between white and non-white scientists.

However, when it came to judging whether a scientist does high-quality work, people tended to associate this with an individual’s apparent competence and morality – and the more attractive and sociable they were perceived to be, the less people considered them to look like a scientist who conducts good research.

Brian Cox is best known to the public as the presenter of science programmes, especially the Wonders of… series.

The researchers then investigated whether facial appearance affects people’s choices about which science to engage with by pairing the titles of real science-news stories with faces that had received low or high interest judgments in the first part of the study. Participants were more likely to choose research that was paired with a photo of an interesting-looking scientist.

“Given the importance of science to issues that could have a major impact on society, such as climate change, food sustainability and vaccinations, scientists are increasingly required to engage with the public,” said Dr Will Skylark from the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge, who led the study.

“It seems that people use facial appearance as a source of information when selecting and evaluating science news. It’s not yet clear how much this shapes the spread and acceptance of scientific ideas among the public, but the rapid growth in visual media means it may be an increasingly important issue.”

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